If you get no reaction, do this:1.) Open an xterm2.) run xev3.) Push, let's say your Volume+ button, and see if you get a response containing the word "XF86AudioRaiseVolume". If it doesn't, you've found your problem. Find you X config files with all your keybindings and relocate it to the default settings.4.) Try again :)

If you need to clean your lens it is important that you use the right equipment so you don't ruin it. Some weeks ago I ordered myself a lens pen (brilliant tool for on the go cleaning) as well as a quality micro fibre clothing for doing this. And the best part? The price! I paid a total of 11.64$ for this! And that's shipping included!

The lenspen is the same as the one presented at http://www.lenspen.com and there are some great instructions on how to use it right here.

Where to order? I'll make it easy for you. Simply put these two items in your shopping cart, just click here and here and you're done! The shopping is done from dealextreme, which is a GREAT site for ordering lots of cheap tools which your local store probably imported from china as well and sold for triple the amount of money :) Only con is that it takes 1-3weeks before the items arrives.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Running Debian Testing Squeeze recently led to me upgrading my system (apt-get upgrade). Based on recent experience with all the performance problems from the intel graphics drivers I did a glxgears check before upgrading which gave me a result at about 1200 fps.

The solution:Upgrade your kernel! I was running Linux Kernel 2.6.26, update it to the 2.6.30 kernel which is available via the apt package system, and your fps should rise to ~500fps. Definetively helped me :) Will come back with more if I find something.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Had a lot of problems recently with the sound in Spotify suddenly muting/disappearing in the middle of listening to music, although the progress bar of the song I was listening to kept on moving. I am using Debian and using Spotify via wine.

Found the solution though which was quite simple:Run winecfg, go to the Audio tab and select the following settings under the DirectSound settings:Hardware accelration: EmulationDef. Sample rate: 44100Def. Bits per sample: 16Turn OFF Driver Emulation.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Update 22.12.2009Great news has arrived just before Christmas. Adobe has released a new version of flash which finally gives us linux users what seems to be a proper improvement of the flash plugins capabilities in full screen mode. At least I am experiencing GREAT improvement when viewing flash videos in fullscreen. On my 3,5 year old laptop I can finally view HD videos on youtube in fullscreen without any problems.

The new version I am talking about is 10.0.42.34. The changelog can be viewed here. The 10.1 version is also in progress, but stay away from it if you are a linux user. Nothing new there for us, and I'm not even sure it has the latest linux tweaks available.

So, try to keep track that you always have the latest version of flash available, this you can easily do here. Downloading the latest version can be done here. Download the .tar.gz version. To install: Open up firefox/swiftfox and type about:plugins in the adressbar. Check where your current libflashplayer.so is located, and replace it. Make sure you do not have multiple installations of the plugin.

Old post with tweaks:Last few days I've had a lot of problems regarding flash video in Linux. So I've spent a lot of time trying to tweak my browsers to work better. Here's my quickstep guide to getting flash working more or less "ok" in Linux. There is still a lot to be done for the flash developers making it work more flawless under Linux.

1.) Make sure you have the plugin for firefox, iceweasel og swiftfox. Check this by typing about:plugin in the address bar. If there are multiple instances of the same flash driver, remove them. Make sure you have the latest version, which at the moment (10th June 2009) shall be: Shockwave Flash 10.0 r22. If you have multiple drivers do a updatedb & locate libflashplayer.so in bash. Restart the browser when you are done.2.) Cpu frequency stepping can be another problem. If you have powernowd or cpufreq installed make sure they are working proper. I had big problems with cpufreq only using 1ghz of my cpu although I had another 883mhz available. Check cpufreq-info and make sure:A) current policy: frequency should be within 1000 MHz and 1.83 GHz.Check that the upper frequency is correct.B) The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use.Make sure you are using the ondemand governor.C) Now we are gonna tweak this so your computer will utilize your full cpu when viewing flash videos:C.1) Stop cpufreq: /etc/init.d/cpufreqd stopC.2) Edit your /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ondemand/up_threshold and set it to 30. This will make your computer utilize your full cpu once the cpu usage climbs above 30%. You can always tweak this one to another setting if you want.C.3) Start cpufreq: /etc/init.d/cpufreqd start3.) We need flash to use your gfx card for the rendering, also known as hardware rendering. Flash uses Opengl in order to do this. Open aptitude, and remove _all_ opengl related packages, and then reinstall the following packages with it's dependencies:libgl1-mesa-glxlibgl1-mesa-dev

Monday, June 8, 2009

So, due to some of the latest updates my desktop experience in Linux got considerably damaged. Everything was suddenly much slower and I almost felt for crushing my computer. The solution was close though. I did a google search for "firefox cpu slow debian 2009", and my first hit was my solution. But please read on here..

The root of the problem was obviously a missing line in the xorg.conf file which tells the graphics card what acceleration method to use. Please read M-x Kelsin's solution on this right here.. After you have done this simply go into a shell as root and restart kdm:/etc/init.d/kdm stop (WARNING!! you will now exit your GUI! So write down the rest, or simply do a restart and you can skip the rest in this section)now you will get a login prompt. Log in as root and start kdm again:/etc/init.d/kdm start

Now everything shall be back to normal. BUT I have another tip for you on how to speed up your browsing experience. Install Swiftfox. What is Swiftfox? It's a version of firefox compiled for specifically use in Linux. It has less memory usage and a noticable better performance. Another neat advantage in my opinion is that you always get the latest version. Now for example I am running 3.5b4 in stead of a way older iceweasel(firefox) version which is in the apt libraries for the Debian Testin version. Since the firefox/swiftfox/iceweasel betas are pretty stable anyway, this is just an advantage in my opinion.

Updating is pretty easy, and swiftfox will automaticly use your default bookmarks, plugins and so on which you already have in firefox/iceweasel. To install edit your /etc/apt/sources.list and add the following line:deb http://getswiftfox.com/builds/debian unstable non-freeNext type:apt-get updateapt-get install swiftfox-prescottNotice there is also a i686 version and a athlon64 version available. (apt-cache search swiftfox).

Monday, May 25, 2009

I have struggled A LOT lately trying to get my built-in wireless network card on my HP NX7400 to work. I seemed to have tried it all, and I could not understand why it would not work. I was using the iwl3945 driver, I could find the networks, but for some reason I could not retrieve dhcp information, and it seemed to not want to connect properly.

But I managed to get it working, finally. The solution? Easy. For some strange strange reason it will only work when using the new wicd (1.5.9) manager from KDE. If you are using fluxbox, as me, simply start it by running wicd-client in bash, and you will get a neat icon in your system tray.

A tip might be to add it to your fluxbox startup file:nano ~/.fluxbox/startupand add the following line:/usr/bin/wicd-client &

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Finally found a solution on how to make my Linux (Debian):A) Remember the unique USB drive(in my case a Western Digital Mirror Edition), and where to mount itB) Automatically mount it when connected

First you have to identify your usb drive, make sure it is connected and you know the device name, in my case:NoMore:/home# blkid /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdc1: UUID="6494BFE994BFBC3C" LABEL="My Book" TYPE="ntfs" NoMore:/home# As you see my drive has a unique ID. This is what we are gonna use in fstab instead of the device name. Smart huh? :) This way we avoid the problem of changing device names when plugging stuff in and out.

Next in fstab, make a line like this:UUID=6494BFE994BFBC3C /home/user/DiSK/ ntfs-3g defaults,auto,umask=000,users,rw 0 0Make the changes you need, but make sure you use your correct UUID(and remove the "") and it is set auto like above.

Next check if it works by typing:mount -aThe -a parameter means it shall mount everything set to auto in fstab. If it works, umount your drive and let's continue:

Ok, make sure you got udev installed. This is what's gonna automaticly mount our drives when new ones are detected. Make a new file;NoMore:/home# nano /etc/udev/rules.d/99-mount.rulesAnd add the following line:SUBSYSTEM=="block", run+="/bin/mount -a"Just make sure it uses the correct path to the mount command.Next restart udev:NoMore:/home# /etc/init.d/udev restartNow unmount(umount) your drive, unplug it and try it out.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

I have recently bought a Western Digital (WD) Mirror Edition 2TB, which I run in raid in order to offer me a really good backup solution for all my pictures and hd-videos from my SLR and important documents. The system is delivered with a NTFS system, which I knew obviously might cause some problems with Linux. As predicted, it happened today. I was just going to do a routine dismout (umount) and connect it to another computer when I ran into problems trying to unmount it. So I did a "umount -l" on the drive, which I apparently never should have.

Later when trying to mount the drive again in Linux (Windows always handles this stuff perfect), I got the following errors:

[root@nomore /]# mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /mnt/ntfsntfs_attr_pread_i: ntfs_pread failed: Input/output errorFailed to read of MFT, mft=10 count=1 br=-1: Input/output errorFailed to read vcn 0x4: Input/output errorFailed to mount '/dev/sdb1': Input/output errorNTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or it's aSoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windowsthen reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is veryimportant! If the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activateit and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g./dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentationfor more details.

So as instructed I connected the drive up to my computer running Microsoft Windows thinking the chkdsk /f command would fix it, but without luck. Tried dismounting properly aswell but it still refused to work.

But I found a solution. Go into "My Computer" while the drive is connected, right click on the drive, select "Properties" head to the "Tools" tab and under Error-checking click "Check now". Remember to tick both the options you get, and let it finish. This might take some time. For my 1TB USB drive it took a couple of hours. When finished, dismount the drive properly in Windows. I don't know if it matters, but just to be sure I dismounted it both with the WD tools and the windows plug&play manager.

I also rebooted my laptop running Linux, before I tired reconnecting. This time it worked perfectly again :) Thank god!

These last weeks I have ordered 2 new adapters from Hong Kong for my nx7400 laptops. It's amazingly cheap, and they are working perfectly. Pictures added for proof :) I have also noticed that dealextreme have started selling these chargers as well, who also offers world-wide free shipping. Only con is that the cable is a little short, but that's no big task to fix.So, all in all, ordering laptop adapters from ebay/dealextreme:Pros:+ Incredibly cheap! I only payed 12$ including shipping and handling for mine+ Works perfectlyCons:- A little slow shipping.. 2-3 weeks- A little short cable

Thursday, May 14, 2009

I have found a really great Nikon D90 users guide which I have to recommend to all you other Nikon D90 users and owners online. It's totally free and even exists in PDF with great explanations and illustrations. The D90 was my very first DSLR camera, and I obviously didn't know quite lot on how to use these cameras before I bought this one. The user manual is located right here, and if you just scroll some lines downwards you will find the link to the guide in PDF format.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Finally got myself a remote for my Nikon D90. It's perfect for taking night photos as you don't get any unwanted movement on the camera while the shutter is open. The remote works perfect and fits great into my camera bag as well. Best part though was the price! I only payed $3.88 including all shipping and handling! Beat it! :) I got it from this site.

My girlfriend recently bought herself a Nokia Navigator. In order to get regular headsets working on it we needed a 2,5mm -> 3,5mm converter. These cost way to much in Norway. But, we happened to find a really cheap solution on Dealextreme right here. It's 1,29$ including shipping and handling! That's simply fantastic!

Friday, April 24, 2009

These adapters doesn't seem to stand much pressure on the connectors. I've already broken two of them.

After paying 80$ the first time for the adapter I fortunately found a cheaper place to buy them. Take a search on ebay.com for "nx7400 adapter", and select "Free shipping" in the sidebar. Several suppliers from Hong Kong are selling these adapters as cheap as 11$ including free shipping worldwide! That's simply great! :)Hope it helps someone out!

Thanks to the last upgrades/distro-upgrade of April 2009 in the testing distro of Debian my mouse suddenly stopped working. After looking around it was actually rather simple to fix. The problem is with the new version of modprobe which demands that all modprobe config filed ends with ".conf". Simply do this:sucd /etc/modprobe.d/mv pnp-hotplug pnp-hotplug.confmodprobe psmouse

If it helps you out, a "thank you" is always appreciated :)

PS.. My soundcard also stopped working.. I will post the fix for that to.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Here I have quickfix for this ;) First make sure you have a program called fbrun installed. Check by typing "exec fbrun" in a shell. If it's not there, find the app and install it (learn to use apt-get).

Next edit your ~/.fluxbox/keys file, and add the following line which will bind the Run dialogue to Alt+R:Mod1 r :Exec fbrun -font Sans-16 -w 500 -h 50 -pos 250 350

save and exit, then rightclick on your desktop, select Reconfigure, and you are done :)

Tip: When the dialogue pops up, notice that you can use the up/down-arrows to browse your command history.

If it doesn't work, post a comment, if it works, please post a thank you :)

Replace the red text with a server from your area or you can use the NTP Pool Project servers which you can find here and can read more about here. The one above is for Norway.Now restart the ntp client;/etc/init.d/ntp stop/etc/init.d/ntp start

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

After crawling the web for some time I found you some replacements and alternatives for Spotify. None of them could really handle with the functionality and ease of Spotify, and I'm not quite sure about how legal these streamers are, even though many of them seem to stream the tracks off from i.e. youtube.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

If you are using Linux you need to install mplayer, in debian you can simply type:apt-get install mplayerOtherwise you can get it both for Windows and other distros right here. (This will work for Windows as well, but I will from here on only explain how it works in Linux).

Next you simply start dumping/recording your stream like this in Linux:mplayer -dumpstream mms://**********************

If this happens after a while you probably just have to start over again, I could not find any solution for this anywhere else. The same think happened to me while trying to dump/record a stream from Nrk, but I simply tried again a little later on and it worked like a charm.

Tips:While recording you can easily playback the video. Simply play the dump like this:mplayer stream.dump

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Then go to the configuration page for cups: http://locahost:631Select Add Printer, and when asked for Device type, simply select ipp. In the next step simply type the printers IP. If you are unsure about the IP, scan your network with nmap like this:nmap -sP 192.168.1.1/24 (will scan entire C-class network)and the IPs for the printer will show up.

Next step it will probably ask for what printer you have, and it also gives you the option to add a ppd(driver). Go to this page and download and extract the english ppd you need. Next upload the ppd, and your printer shall now be ready to go :)

Thursday, January 22, 2009

UPDATE 31. January 2010:
I'm sorry guys. Currently no working method available. Please let me know if there is one and I will add it immediately. If I find something I will add it, so please check back.

UPDATE 1. May 2009:Seems like the pages listed below are running really fast out of invites lately, so here's another one which should work. Simply click here and it will take you directly to the registration.

PLEASE notify me whether it works or not :)
UPDATE 3. January 2009: Unfortunately it seems like the proxy is down, but I've found a couple solutions though :) First off, some sites who are giving out free invites daily. Check if they are giving out invites, otherwise check back some hours later. The url's:http://spotify.rejected.se/ (English)http://garaget.in/invites/ (English & Swedish)http://lakka.se/index.php?p=spot (Swedish)
The second solution is checking out the IRC channel #spotify on Quakenet. Rumors has it they are giving out lots of invites.

A thank you in the comment field is always appreciated :)

Old post:
My hunt on getting free Spotify accounts for you continues! I finally found a solution which will work for everyone. And best of all; you dont need a invite either!

All you have to do is register via this proxy. Copy and paste the link below to the address field in your browser, and you will be sent straight to the registration form!

Old post:Wow, I suddenly came over a site which shares spotify invites to everyone. Time for me to share it with my dear readers. You simply submit some information, and they will send you a spotify invite right away. I just tested it, and it works.

The only con is that the site is in Norwegian, but I will translate it for you. If they run empty you could check out my previous post about how to get a free spotify account.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

I will here present you three ways to get Spotify. But first I must say that Spotify is such a GREAT tool in all ways. It's free and legal, and It's great to finally see that the music industry delivers an alternate to pirating. If you like Spotify, support them, and buy an account.PS! Spotify works great with Linux as well. Simply install and start it via wine. Here is the instruction for using it with Linux.

Here are three ways to get a free account:

A) Go to http://www.spotify.com/ click "Get started" and submit your e-mail address in the last field. Hopefully they will send you an invite in not to long.

B) Haven't confirmed this one yet, but rumors says it works:1.) Find a UK proxy, i.e. this one. Enter www.spotify.com as URL, and make sure it wont remove the scripts.2.) Click "Get started" and enter the proper information. Make sure country is set to "United Kingdom" and postal code "SW1A 2AB".3.) Submit the information, and let's hope it works :) Hopefully you will get some invites as well..

C) Ask friends who have bought an account to give you an invite. Ask around and you will probably find someone who can help you out. In my own case it was a friend of mine who presented me to spotify, and fixed me an invite from a friend of his who had bought an spotify premium account.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Livescribe Pulse Smartpen is a ballpoint pen with a lot of digital capabilities. But what first caught my attention before even buying one was wether or not it would work with Linux. In this blog post I will keep updating with solutions on how to use it with Linux.

photo: livescribe.com

So far I have only found one confirmed and working way to use it. This is via Windows virtualization software like VMWare. The biggest problem with this is the fact that VMWare costs money. Another con reported is a little lag when docking the pen to the computer.

Hopefully there will come more solutions on how to use it together with Linux, but sadly it seems to come last in the queue of systems who gets real support for it.

Top Gears own professional racer driver known as The Stig has been a mystery for all of the shows fans. In just about each episode this pro car driver shows up and pushes new cars to their limits on the track. He sure knows how to drive, but his identity has been unknown for several years until now. British journalists finally claim they know who "The Stig" really is.

photo: wikipedia

There have been several guesses the last years, covering all from Julian Bailey, Ben Collins, Damon Hill, Tim Schrick, Russ Swift to Darren Turner.

The newspaper who now claims to know his identity is News of the World. Only to bad they wont reveal it 100%. But they give a lot of teasers. They claim his pay is around 150.000£ a year, and that his car is worth 15.000£.

The previous Stig, known as the black Stig was revealed to be Perry McCarty though. When The Stig even confessed this, Clarkson, the shows key host decided to dump him which you can see in the following video clip. Maybe not that bad after all the white Stigs identity have not been revealed yet..?

Monday, January 12, 2009

Backing up your computer is always important. Unfortunately most people don't realize this before the accident takes place. A free and easy way to do it is using one of the free online storage backup systems.

First som pros and consPros:- The services listed here are completely free to use- Not OS-dependent. You can access these no matter what operating system you are running (Windows, Mac, Linux etc.)- Safely externally stored. Can't be physically harmed.

Cons:- Slower then most physical mediums- If you have bigger needs, you have to pay for it- High safety needs

The most popular services available:#1 - 50GBAdrive.com offers you 50gb of free storage, and I think it is safe to say that this offer is pretty unbeatable. I am using it myself for my photo and document collection and I am very happy with it.#2 - 5GBEsnips.com offers 5gb. Also a decent and free offer which can be worth taking a look at. They also have a focus on community and sharing services.#3 - 2GBMozy.com offers 2gb.

Friday, January 9, 2009

First find your battery status:ls /proc/acpi/batteryThen find which of the dirs listed contains the information for your battery. simply "cat" each /proc/acpi/battery/****/info file, and see which contains any information.

To add to your .conkyrc file, simply edit and add the variables you want. Here are some samples:${battery_bar C1B5}${battery_percent C1B5}

Sunday, January 4, 2009

I spent some time figuring out how to do this, but finally found out how it all worked and what had to be done in order for it to worker properly. I am running Debian Testing.General setup1.) You need a package called gnupod-tools. If you are running debian as me, install them like this (as root):apt-get install gnupod-toolsI am also in favor of using a graphical user interface, in my case Amarok.apt-get install amarok2.)Next we are going to add you ipod to your fstab. Here are two methods, the first(Method A) and BEST one is identifying your ipod by UUID. This will save you a lot of problems:Method A:First find your players UUID, typeblkid /dev/sdbThis will give you your players UUID. Make sure /dev/sdb is the correct location of YOUR player. Next enter root mode and edit your /etc/fstab:UUID=YOUR-UUID /mnt/ipod vfat sync, users, auto,umask=000 0 0Method B:As root edit your /etc/fstab and add the following line:/dev/sdb /mnt/ipod vfat sync,user,noauto,umask=000 0 0Make sure the /dev/sdb is the same as the one your ipod will be discovered as when connecting and create the /mnt/ipod dir. (mkdir /mnt/ipod)3.) Now connect your ipod shuffle and mount it like this:mount /mnt/ipod3.) Delete everything on itcd /mnt/ipodrm -rf ./*and let's make the file system with gnupod:gnupod_INIT -m /mnt/ipodYour ipod should now be ready to start adding music on. From here on you can either add them manually in bash or via Amarok. I will teach you how to do both.

Adding music to ipod shuffle in bashThis is pretty easy. All you have to do is use the gnupod_addsong command like this for every tune you want to add:gnupod_addsong -m /mnt/ipod/ /home/user/My_Music/my_tune.mp3After you have done this you have to build the library on your ipod by simply typing:mktunes -m /mnt/ipod/And eject it properly:umount /dev/sdbeject /dev/sdb

Your ipod shall now work properly.

Adding music to ipod shuffle via AmarokStart up amarok, it shall now find your ipod automaticly. If it doesn't go to "Settings->Configure Amarok" and select "Media Devices". If there is no devices listed click "Autodetect Devices" and your /dev/sdb shall now appear. Now choose to use the "Apple iPod Media Device" plugin for this device. Click Apply and OK. Click the devices button on bottom left. Select the ipod shuffle device, and connect. Add music by dragging it to the list on the left, right click and press "Start transfer" to transfer the music. When you are done quit Amarok, and go into bash and build the ipod library by typing:mktunes -m /mnt/ipod/And eject it properlyumount /mnt/ipodeject /mnt/ipod

Tips 1:To tweak Amarok and make it easyer to use later, try this:First let's make a new binary which incorporates a couple of commands when disconnecting. Enter root mode, and edit /usr/bin/ejectpodEnter the following:mktunes -m /mnt/ipodumount /mnt/ipodeject /mnt/ipodSave and exit. Chmod /usr/bin/ejectpod to 755:chmod 755 /usr/bin/ejectpodEnter Amarok go to Devices and click the configure device button up right next to transfer. As post-disconnect command enter:/usr/bin/ejectpodAs Pre-connect command enter:mount -aOK, and you are ready. Now amarok should hopefully automaticly build the new databases and unmount the ipod when clicking disconnect.